Republicans won control of the US Senate with victories in West Virginia and Ohio on Tuesday, ensuring that Donald Trump’s party will control at least one chamber of Congress next year.
Neither party appeared to have a clear advantage in the battle for the House of Representatives, which Republicans now control by a narrow margin.
But Tuesday’s results ensured Republicans would be able to help Trump appoint conservative judges and other government personnel if he wins the presidential race, or block much of Democrat Kamala Harris’s agenda if she prevails.
Republican Jim Justice was projected to win an open Senate seat in West Virginia shortly after polls closed, taking over the seat previously held by Joe Manchin, a Democrat-turned-independent. In Ohio, multiple U.S. media outlets projected that Republican Bernie Moreno would defeat incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. Those two victories ensured Republicans will hold at least a 51-49 majority in the Senate, with further gains possible as results in other competitive races come in.